Restraining Orders Issued in Wells Fargo Client-Data Release
July 26 2017 - 6:29PM
Dow Jones News
By Michael Wursthorn
Two courts issued temporary restraining orders blocking a former
Wells Fargo & Co. broker and his attorneys from sharing or
reviewing data accidentally shared with them on tens of thousands
of the bank's wealth-advisory clients.
The information was released in response to a subpoena relating
to the former broker's defamation lawsuit against his brother, who
is a current Wells Fargo adviser.
The disclosure came to light after Aaron Zeisler, an attorney at
Zeisler PLLC in New York representing former Wells Fargo broker
Gary Sinderbrand, last week informed a Wells Fargo lawyer that he
had received documents that "include social security numbers,
account numbers, names, addresses, telephone numbers and other
personal identifying information" for tens of thousands of Wells
Fargo wealth-management clients, according to a letter reviewed by
The Wall Street Journal.
State judges in New York and New Jersey on Wednesday ordered
Messrs. Sinderbrand and Zeisler, as well as attorney Andrew Miller,
from any further review or dissemination of the Wells Fargo client
data, according to separate restraining orders.
The judge in New Jersey, Joseph Marczyk, ordered Mr. Sinderbrand
and his lawyers to destroy any electronic copies of the client
data, as well as turn over any hard copies to the court. Hearings
are scheduled to be held on the matter on Aug. 10 and Sept. 1 in
New York and New Jersey, respectively.
Mr. Zeisler declined to comment, while Mr. Miller didn't
immediately return a phone call. A separate letter from Mr. Zeisler
had suggested that he and Mr. Sinderbrand don't expect to make the
information public and would return the documents "at the
appropriate time."
A Wells Fargo spokeswoman said in a statement that the bank is
pleased with the court decisions. The rulings are "a positive
result of our ongoing efforts to make things right," she said.
--Lisa Beilfuss contributed to this article.
Write to Michael Wursthorn at Michael.Wursthorn@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 26, 2017 18:14 ET (22:14 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024
Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024
